New at baking, need some advice plz

[Alpies]

So I've started 'trying' to bake. But every cake has ended in the bin so far. I'm trying to make a simple birthday cake with buttercream frosting. The thing is I find all the sponge cake recipes too sweet. So I've been halving the sugar amount in the recipe.

I'm using a recipe from Pinterest:
Flour, cornflour, butter, sugar, baking soda, 4 eggs and sour cream.

Where am I going wrong? Is the cake not rising properly because I'm reducing sugar?

Or can someone point me to a nice fool proof recipe for a sponge cake on which I can layer buttercream frosting plz.

Many thanks

Do you use a fan oven? I know a lot of people use them fine but I find for my cakes they don't rise the same or dry out. Since changing to my top oven (smaller but no fan) my cakes rise much more evenly and are not dry.

That really is an odd recipe for sponge cake though. Rachel Allen's Bake is a really good book too, it includes basic recipes with techniques at the back.

Thanks PollytheDolly!
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AugustRose*
Yes it's a fan oven. Not sure i can blame the oven though as my skills at baking are simply dire! I have very basic equipment, a very old handheld mixer thingy. I have ordered trays and stuff but not willing to splurge out on a powerful stand mixer unless I can actually do this properly.

I got attracted to the pictures on Pinterest. The cake looks so fluffy n delicious. See for yourself x

You can bake most things with a handheld electric mixer. I had a trusted old electric mixer from when I was at university and it finally broken down last year. I was 40! I have been baking with it for 20 years and it had never failed me. (Except for pavlova). I got a stand mixer to replace it, only because I know I'll make use of it.

I use fresh double cream, whipped, in sponges as buttercream is a bit too sweet for me. I usually put in some sliced strawberries or raspberries too.

Always use exact quantities - battery powered scales are best for that

Always sift your flour to avoid lumps

Use level teaspoons and tablespoons - proper measuring spoons are best

Use the correct size tin and grease your tins really well with butter

Eggs and butter should be at room temperature before baking

Preheat your oven (obvious one)

Use the middle shelf of the oven

For recipes always go with one's that use grams. Mary berrys books and website have lots of lovely one's, BBC good food and delicious magazjne website have plenty

British recipes are based around Medium eggs unless they say otherwise, and one medium egg will weigh around 2ozs (or 55-60 gms). That said, a British medium egg is the same weight as an Australian or American Large egg. Do not overbeat the mixture. Otherwise, follow tried and tested standard recipes until you don't get them wrong....then you can experiment later.

One thing to remember is that nothing deserves to go in the bin. You can always heat it up again and have it with custard for pudding!

Many thanks everyone! I've baked my second sponge cake. Followed Delia's recipe as per the advice here. First one was a success. Here's a pic of the cake I've baked today ready to be decorated. I didn't quite divide the dough properly so the slices are out of sync. More work but so pleased with the results! Many thanks for the support and advice x

Well they look pretty good to me, well done. I never get equal layers either.

Well done! Did it taste nice?

It doesn't really matter if the layers are different sizes (although the thinnner one might cook quicker than the thicker one, so watch out for that), but if you do want more even sized cakes, you can weigh them as you dollop the cake batter into the tins, and get them to roughly the same weight.

Hope this is the beginning of many more lovely home made cakes for you!

It tasted absolutely delicious! I was so so pleased with myself especially as the inlaws were round for DD's birthday. Decorated it too! I bought icing decorating tips and did an Ombré icing with her favourite little princess figurines on top.

I have another question though! All the recipes requires a 20cm tin. Now that's too big for us unless there's a little party. I bought a 15cm deep tin today as the size look better for our needs. If I were to bake a sponge in it but do only one layer (albeit larger layer) would that still work? I don't want to do 2 layers and use jam/icing in the middle? Also does anyone know how much time that would req in oven please?

The problem with using the same quantity of sponge cake mix, but in one deep cake tin rather than two shallower tins, is that your cake is likely to be undercooked in the middle and overcooked around the outside. If you cook it for longer, hoping to get the middle cooked, you'll burn the outside.

You could try a Madeira cake recipe though? Or a loaf cake in a loaf tin, and those recipes are designed for more solid, deeper cakes.

Hmmmm! I knew it wouldn't be that simple! Maybe I'll go buy another cake tin tomorrow!

you'd need to wrap the tin with newspaper and cook on a lower temperature for longer.
It's not an easy thing to master though.

See, you can bake!

Agree with the above point about a convection oven getting better results than fan - I always use the convection setting for cakes, though fan is awesome for pastry.

Shallow cakes like the ones you did I tend to cook at 180. If I put all that mixture in one deep tin, I'd cook it at 160 and check with a cocktail stick after 50 minutes - often they need an hour and a quarter, but that's fine if the oven's not too hot, so it cooks through without over rising or ending up burnt on the outside and raw in the middle. Those are convection temperatures, btw - take off 20-30C for fan. That in itself is dependent on so many things, though. For Christmas cakes, with a bog standard round loose bottom tin, 140 is fine in my oven, but if I use my fancy adjustable square tin, it needs to be no more than 130, or else it ends up like breezeblock after about 2/3 of the cooking time!